If there’s one thing we know about a Blumhouse film, it’s that the producers of the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY franchise are convinced the American family just isn’t safe at home. In the case of DARK SKIES, the entities bedeviling a married couple (Keri Russell and Josh Hamilton) and their two young sons (Dakota Goyo and Kadan Rockett) aren’t restless spirits, but malevolent aliens, determined to put the suburbanites through the wringer for reasons unclear, even to alien expert J.K. Simmons.

Cinefantastique Online’s Steve Biodrowski, Lawrence French and Dan Persons get together to see if spooky stuff is spookier with a science fiction twist, and how exactly a typically overextended, middle-class family manages to afford a comprehensive home security system and room-to-room video surveillance. (Possible explanation: selling the footage to Blumhouse Productions.) Plus: What’s coming to theaters this Friday.